You've never heard of Farrokh Bulsara. Yet he is one of the greatest rock stars of the last century. You'll know him as Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of the 1970s British rock band phenomenon, Queen. Even if you are a Millennial, with sales of over 200 million records, you will recognise: Bohemian Rhapsody, We are the Champions, We will Rock you, You're my best friend, Another one bites the dust, Somebody to love and many other of Queen's greatest hits. You may have even sung the catchy and uplifting lyrics at mass events around the world.
As the biographical movie Bohemian Rhapsody comes out (October 2018), Freddie Mercury's fascinating life comes under the spotlight.
It's always been mystery why he chose Mercury as his last name. The obvious explanation is that it was his Sun ruler. His Sun Sign is Virgo.
Alternatively, his brother in law, Roger Cooke, claims Freddie told him that it was his rising planet. Roger joked 'When he told me, I said, it's a bloody good job it wasn't Uranus. Freddie never forgave me for that.' [1] His time of birth is unknown, but this would equate to 5.50am.
Bryan May attributes Freddie's choice of surname to a line about "Mother, Mercury" in his song "My Fairy King" (1973). [2] The song appears to be about a Fairy King who loses his power over nature, leading to a disaster where the seasons, winds, tides fall out of sync and the sea turns dry. [3] Yep - it's prophetic - half a century later.
Though the Fairy King seems to be more descriptive of the Moon than the planet Mercury, as known to astrologers, it appears that, in Freddie's mind, the winged Fairy represents his Sun Sign Virgo. This is evident in Freddie's design of Queen's ubiquitous logo, using his training in art and graphic design. There are zodiacal creatures that represent or symbolise the sign of each of the four members of the band. He depicted his sign Virgo by two fairies. He would also have been mindful of the double meaning of the band name, Queen and fairies and his homosexuality.
In the centre of this regal logo is a crown surrounded by a Q for Queen. Above the Q is a crab and at the top a phoenix arising out of the flames. The crab represents the sign of Cancer - the sun sign of lead guitarist Brian May (b. 19 July 1947). Below are two lions representing the sign of Leo. The drummer, Roger Taylor (b. 26 July 1949) and the bass guitarist, John Deacon (b. 19 Aug 1951) are both (Sun) Leos. Finally, two winged fairies (possibly female or young boys) sit below the Q. Perhaps the semi-naked fairies represent virginity, innocence, purity or demi-goddesses of nature.
Astrology would have been part of Freddie's upbringing. His parents were Parsis, an ethnic group of Persian origin who live in India. His family originated from the city of Bulsar in Gujarat - a centre of the Zoroastrian religion. The ancient Zoroastrian heritage is tied up with astrology in Mesopotamia and their priests were star gazing Magi.
~Robert Currey
[1] Waldemar Januszczak. "Star of India." Sunday Times Magazine 11/17/1996, p. 61
[2] Matt Richards & Mark Langthorne "Somebody to Love: The Life, Death and Legacy of Freddie Mercury" by (Bonnier, 2016): Brian May "'He [Freddie] wrote a song for the first album [by Queen] called “My Fairy King” and in it there's a line that goes: “O Mother Mercury, what have you done to me?”' Brian May remembers. 'And it was after that that he said to me, “Well, I'm going to become Mercury because the mother in this song is my mercury and so I'm going to become Mercury.”
[3] Lyrics from My Fairy King:
My fairy king can do right and nothing wrong Then came man to savage in the night To run like thieves and to kill like knives To take away the power from the magic hand To bring about the ruin to the promised land
They turn the milk into sour Like the blue in the blood of my veins Why can't you see it Fire burnin' in hell with the cry of screaming pain Son of heaven set me free and let me go Sea turn dry no salt from sand Seasons fly no helping hand Teeth don't shine like pearls for the poor man's eyes
Someone someone has drained the colour from my wings Broken my fairy circle ring And shamed the king in all his pride Changed the winds and wronged the tides Mother mercury (mercury) Look what they've done to me I cannot run I cannot hide
Online sources: Kannon McKafee, Frank Clifford, AstroDataBank, Sy Scholfield, Alexander Eckstein,